Well, I was hoping to pick up the kitty today, but when the surgeon was making rounds earlier today he said she wasn't eating yet so he had to keep her. So I decided to puree some of her normal dry food and bring that in. (I was told yesterday I could come in and visit at any time.) I was a bit dubious about Maddy not eating. She's always been ravenous - appetite has never been a problem, and even in this state I suspected that she'd still be eating. I thought maybe it was just stress or she was still too doped up, and I thought I might get her to eat if it was her food.

So I went in, with a tupperware container of kitty mush hidden in my purse and after waiting for a vet tech to get her, I was informed that she looked kinda rough because she was messy eater! So it turns out she did eat, but not until after the surgeon left for the day, so he wanted to keep her. I asked if I could go ahead and take her home and the vet tech said it would be better to wait until the surgeon got another look at her tomorrow, and I was already being charged for ICU care for today so I might as well let her stay and continue to get IV fluids.

So the scoop on the vet bill is that it's probably going to be around $3,500 plus $200 at my regular vet. Amazingly almost half of that has been donated, and I'm speechless about that. I haven't been able to respond to every person that commented/donated individually yet, but I am SO appreciative. You people are awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you. People have been asking how they can help, so here's the paypal button again if you missed it -

( more about my visit )

Sorry for the 9 million kitty updates, but it sounds like everyone wants to know.

She's out of surgury. The surgeon seems pretty cool. I was a bit discouraged when I talked to him at 4:30, but when he called with the post-opt update he told me he's never had a jaw surgury give him this much grief and he was determined to win. He ended up trying something else instead of the metal plate and bone screws to re-align her jaw. He grafted some of the bone and then rigged something with "straws full of cement" to wire her jaw back in place using her canine teeth as anchors. Truely he's starting to sound like the macguyver of vetrinary surgeons. He got things aligned as much as they can be, and if this contraption holds while she heals there's a good chance she won't be too crooked. If it doesn't work, she'll be crooked, but no worse off than she was before. So I'm really pleased with this. I've had this good feeling most of today that things were just going to work out, so the message earlier had be worried, but so far, so good. If all goes according to plan, I'll be picking her up tomorrow. She will be monitored 24/7 (this place doesn't mess around!) I talked to my primary vet (whom my family has used for 3 generations and counting) and he is optimistic that even w/o the metal plate thing we'll get her eating again. The surgeon said she'll probably be back on solid food again eventually.


I'm completely incredulous and grateful at the outpouring of well wishes and donations. So far it's put a big dent in her bill - about a quarter of the estimated expenses so far. Due to the difficulties the surgeon had, the operation was about three times longer than he expected. So the anesthesia bill is probably going to be a lot more than what was estimated - and that was one of the largest expenses on the bill. But like I said before, he didn't need to do the bone screws so hopefully those two things will cancel each other out. The bone screws were gonna be $100 a piece and the metal plate was somewhere around $400. I'm keeping track of everyone that donates and I want to try to thank everyone individually. If you donate, please opt to send your snail mail address and I'll be sure to send you an update with pictures once this whole mess is over with. Thanks again truly. The people I know through my friendslist who donated I already knew were great people, but I'm astonished at the generousity of perfect strangers. It's nice to know that when something this messed up happens people are willing to help out. My internet access at home is messed up, so if I can't reply to your comments right away please don't be offended, I'm reading everything and am really thankful.

It's amazing what can change in 2 days.

Surgeon just called and there's been a complication - there isn't enough intact bone to attach the metal plate and bone screws. He said he could take out that half of the jaw but he doesn't think its necessary. Instead he's going to clean out as much gunk and bone fragments and patch her back together. Her mouth will be shifted permently...he can't move the teeth back.


Goddammit....I was NOT told this was a possibility. This makes me feel like this sugury isn't accomplishing much.


Becuse he won't be using the metal plate and bone screws the cost of the sugury will be a bit less, so at least there's that. God. Now I'm worried. Calling my vet right now.

I was asked to make a public post about my kitty, so here it is. If you are on my friends list, there's no need to bother ( clicking on this, just scroll down. )

I've calmed down a bit and reached a level of numbness/rage, so let me explain what happened. First off, it was Maddy that was shot. She's my annoying, squirmy tiny stray that I took in a few years ago. Like a lot of strays, she always wants to go outside and even though in general I don't agree with having "outdoor cats" anyone that's taken in a predominately outdoors cat knows that if you don't let it out from time to time, they go apeshit and won't stop bugging you until you let them out. So in the warmer months she goes out fairly frequently. Because she was a stray, a lot of the people in my building know her, and she's got this puppy-dog personality, she'll go up to anyone and purr and sit on their lap. This always made me nervous because I was afraid she wasn't wary enough around strangers. Unfortunately my instincts were proven correct last night.

( Read more... )

I have nothing to say, so ( look at some new pet pictures. )

Wow, tonight the Internets taught me how to fold a shirt like a ninja:

http://www.akuaku.org/archives/2004/05/art_of_tshirt_f.shtml

See video here: http://www.big-boys.com/articles/tshirtfold.html

I tried it, it works! But I had to find English instructions because I'm retarded spatially and have no coordination.

Someone seriously needs to lock this chick up.

There are no words.

The Arcade Fire is just too fucking weird for its own good. I'm watching them on Conan right now...this might be the only time I think I liked a song better on the cd rather than live. I don't get while all the indie kids are crapping their pants over this band. I kinda like the single, but these people are wierdos. Maybe I'm just getting old.